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Sunday, October 9, 2011

Loyalty and Politics

Howard Wilkinson's Enquirer article ["Politics is a game played by hardened, ruthless individuals"] about the movie "The Ides of March" mentions the quote by the Campaign Manager, Paul Zara - "There's only one thing I believe in this world..... And that is loyalty". But Wilkinson makes the point that "Loyalty is a transferable commodity" [in Politics].

That is the problem with politics - we have come to expect that politicians change views, modify their own personal loyalties to causes based on the polls and the personal temptation to get elected regardless of the ethics.

When I was deciding whether to pursue a PHd in Statistics, I talked at length to my professors about the pro's and con's of the academic world. I wanted to enter this world because of my disdain for "corporate politics". But my professors felt that concept (and criteria for entering the academic world) was misguided and informed me that they felt politics were greater in the academic world than in corporate America.

So I wanted to find a company that minimized politics - a career at Accenture seemed to an excellent window to evaluate corporate politics at various companies. My logic was that I could work at various companies as a consultant and determine what company had the least corporate politics. In the end, I stayed at Accenture (long story there) because I found the politics at Accenture (and yes there was plenty of politics at Accenture) was lower than any of my clients.

So my loyalty remained at Accenture for 25 years - but it was always something I felt was transferable. :)